Campaign of the Month:
May 2014

Ladies in Hades and the Dyval Wears Prada

Journal - Trent - Entry 4

Keeping a journal again is a little weird to me. I didn’t dare keep a journal when I was running around the Chi-town burbs with Lars, and the last one I kept during my travels with Tir’nalath and Nusael was “lost”. Stupid Nusael, I know what “lost” meant when he told me that. What I wouldn’t give to be able to reference that journal now! I know what happened in the room in the library felt similar to something that happened with Nusael and Tir’nalath years ago, a test that turned into a prank that Nusael thought was “oh-so hilarious”. But who got the last laugh there, New Seal?! Still, there are details that I don’t quite clearly recall, and I can’t help but think it would be useful if did.

So where was I? The Library! We traveled into this room, and were immediately assaulted by the intense heat of that burning fire! (note: Why haven’t I learned a fire resistance or immunity spell yet? I’ll put a list on the back page of this journal of the spells I need t remind myself to work on learning) I used magical telekinesis to pull the body out from under the books, and we discovered it was an old woman dressed in stretched and torn children’s clothes. She appeared to be dead.

While Pall and I were puzzling this out, The Deacon decided to, I kid you not, climb up the pile of books and into the burning fire! He wasn’t consumed by it though (how did he know?) and found a weird book that seemed to afflict him with memory loss. Pall started tearing through the pile to get at The Deacon (rather than just climb it), and uncovered a second body! Another dead old woman, but wearing adult clothes that she didn’t seem to grow through.

I got shivers writing this down, but it was even worse as all this was unfolding and slowly dawning on me. I was beginning to suspect Temporal Magic was at play, and I wasn’t liking what that implied. I’m still nervous, actually. I don’t like what we discovered at all. But back to the room. I decided to do a quick experiment. I set my mind to the task of accurately measuring the exact flow of time. I took my knife and cast the spell to send it forward through time, by about 30 seconds. It didn’t even disappear! I got a sinking feeling in my gut and bade The Deacon and Pall Mall to exit the room with these brittle old bodies. Time was not “right” in here, and what that meant was nothing good. At all.

We used telekenetic magic to move the brittle bodies out carefully, but the magic failed upon exiting. I was able to catch the one dressed in young girl’s clothers, and The Deacon sprang forward to catch the other old woman in a spectacular feat of reflexes! Another reason to be wary of him. The book he was carrying skittered across the floor and we forgot about it momentarily, our attention on other things.

We laid the two bodies down and my initial fears were realized. Just like our magics ended upon entering the room, so too did the temporal aging magic which was affecting these two. We watched as these two old bodies reverted into the form and look of the woman and child we were here to find! They started breathing again, but remained unconscious. The young girl’s clothes, tattered and ruined from her body stretching to fill them, fell away. I wrapped her in my cloak and discovered she was wearing an amulet very similar to the one I found clutched in the Coalition soldier’s hands.

Pall and The Deacon were arguing – apparently Pall had noticed a similar amulet on the woman but The Deacon wouldn’t let him take it off of her. All three amulets were similar, though not identical. As if each was made for a father, a mother, and a child. In fact, each one bore an inscription.

The one from the apartment read: “Father – The beginning of all things. Beholden to him and must obey.”
The one on the woman read: “Mother – Mother is the word for god on the lips and hearts of children.”
The one on the child read: “Child – The prodigal progeny goes forth into the world to spread the word.”

I recalled the carnage back at the apartment, and how the Coalition soldier was found, holding the amulet I took. Something didn’t seem right so I convinced Pall and The Deacon we should put these two back in the room. While in there The Deacon started saying some prayers over them, and noticed their bodies reacted badly to them. Reacted as if they were unholy. Or demonic.

That’s when it hit me – The strap on the amulet I had wasn’t broken. The way the soldier was holding it, he had been trying to put it back on the thing which had effortlessly killed his entire squad! A quick aura-sight spell confiremd that this mother and child were not human, and were incredibly powerful – the daughter even more so than the mother! How can I accurately describe the dread I felt as I realized that these two were some sort of powerful demonic creatures? Were they the reason everyone in this library was dead? Were they locked in that room we pulled them from on purpose? Like a prison?

We left them in the room and walked back out to discuss the situation away from the still recovering creatures. But then I remembered the time distortion! I mentally checked the time and discovered it had been seventeen weeks since we first entered the library!